Welding systems reside at the core of the modem industrial age. From massive automobile assembly operations to automated manufacturing environments, these systems facilitate joining in ever more complicated manufacturing operations. One such example of a welding system includes an electric arc welding system. This may involve movement of a consumable electrode, for example, toward a work piece while current is passed through the electrode and across an arc developed between the electrode and the work piece. The electrode may be a non-consumable or consumable type, wherein portions of the electrode may be melted and deposited on the work piece. Often, hundreds or perhaps thousands of welders are employed to drive multiple aspects of an assembly process, wherein sophisticated controllers enable individual welders to operate within relevant portions of the process. For example, some of these aspects relate to control of power and waveforms supplied to the electrode, movements or travel of a welding tip during welding, electrode travel to other welding points, gas control to protect a molten weld pool from oxidation at elevated temperatures and provide ionized plasma for an arc, and other aspects such as arc stability to control the quality of the weld. These systems are often deployed over great distances in larger manufacturing environments and many times are spread across multiple manufacturing centers. Given the nature and requirements of modern and more complex manufacturing operations, however, welding systems designers, architects and suppliers face increasing challenges in regard to upgrading, maintaining, controlling, servicing and supplying various welding locations. Unfortunately, many conventional welding systems operate in individually controlled and somewhat isolated manufacturing locations in regard to the overall assembly process. Thus, controlling, maintaining, servicing and supplying multiple and isolated locations in large centers and/or across the globe has become more challenging, time consuming and expensive.
One such challenge relates to coordinating, controlling and configuring nodes of a welding cell. Conventional systems often require engineers and designers to travel to a plurality of different nodes of a welding cell to manually change and/or modify a current production process. This can involve modifying the power and waveforms supplied by a power source to an electrode, for example. In an industrial environment, physical access to nodes of a welding cell can be limited and impractical. Further, when the overall assembly operation is finally underway, however, it may be discovered that some individual elements need to be “tuned” or modified. This may involve sending a systems engineer to each physical location to modify individual elements.
This challenge can be magnified when coordinating, controlling and configuring a plurality of welding systems. Conventional systems often require engineers and designers to travel to a plurality of different welding cell locations to manually change and/or modify a current production process. This may involve modifying programs associated with the control aspects of each welder, for example. After modifications have occurred, individual welders may then be tested at each location to verify one particular portion of the overall process. When the overall assembly operation is finally underway, however, it may be discovered that some individual welders need to be “tuned” or modified in order to integrate with other welding systems contributing to the process. This may involve sending a systems engineer to each welding cell location in a large assembly operation to modify an individual portion of the process. The limitations in gaining physical access to the nodes can thus be amplified creating a difficult task for engineers and designers.
Another challenge facing welding systems relates to service and maintenance. Welders are often maintained and serviced according to procedures implemented by operators of the welding systems. Although some operators may adequately service and maintain these systems, quality of the service and maintenance is often up to the training and competence of the individual operator. Thus, a large collection of well-maintained welders servicing an overall assembly process may be at the mercy of another welding system that is not properly serviced or maintained. This may cause the process to stop or be disrupted during service outages relating to a poorly maintained welder. Even under the best of circumstances, however, given that many welding systems are operating in an isolated manner, diagnostic information relating to the health of these systems is often not reported or discovered until after a breakdown occurs.
Still yet another challenge relating to conventional welding systems relates to ordering and supplying consumable items for the systems. As described above, these items may include wire, gas, and other components associated with the welding process. These materials are often tracked and ordered by operators or supervisors responsible for the process.
Due to the problems described above and other problems associated with conventional welding systems, there is an unsolved need for to a system and method of wireless communication with and among nodes of a welding cell.